


Developments

by LittleMissWolfie



Series: After [10]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Babies, Childbirth, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Implied/Referenced Language, M/M, Parenthood, Post-Series, TW: Blood, tw: childbirth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-15
Updated: 2016-08-15
Packaged: 2018-08-08 22:09:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7775518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleMissWolfie/pseuds/LittleMissWolfie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She looks up at him, face flushed, and says, “I think my water broke.”</p>
<p>Or;</p>
<p>The first year of Baby Rios's life, as told by doting father Lance.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Developments

**Author's Note:**

> My search history is very incriminating now, thanks to all the infant development facts I had to look up to write this fic. I had to assure my friend I was not the next Virgin Mary while I wrote this.
> 
> So this fic is a little shorter than some of my other ones, but I really just wanted to write a piece of self-indulgent fluff and I thought, "Hey, babies are extremely fluffy," so here you go.
> 
> As always, I want to thank my reviewers. So, thank you to AlphaofDarkness, my old friend, and a newer, but still very welcome friend, Ididntsignupforthisshit. 
> 
> I hope you all enjoy Developments!

It’s a typical lazy afternoon in the newlywed Rios house. Lance has the day off from the daycare he’s been working at, so he and Pidge are lying on the couch and watching retro movies. He has Pidge tucked under his chin and his arm around her round belly, which is an impressive feat, as Pidge is ready to pop any day. Her hair’s gotten longer again, falling just beneath her shoulderblades, and Lance has found he loves playing with it when he can.

Pidge has been exhausted all day, and by the steady rising and falling of her chest Lance deduces she is asleep. The baby’s been extra active, too, kicking against his hands far more often than usual. Both of their mothers assured them the previous evening it just meant she was getting close.

It’s not easy, coordinating enough living space for nineteen people in a rural area, even for a short time. Their home only has three bedrooms, one of which is their and one being their baby’s nursery, and they felt horrible when they considered putting their friends and family up in a hotel. Thankfully, their kind, elderly neighbors had more land than they knew what to do with, and they offered to let Allura and Coran land the castle on the property line, so everyone’s staying there instead. It’s only by the grace of God that everyone has decided to leave them alone for an afternoon.

Near the end of the movie, Pidge shifts and shrugs out from under Lance’s arm. “Gotta pee,” she says groggily, wobbling to her feet. 

“Mmkay,” he replies, letting his legs stretch now that he doesn’t have to worry about waking her up. “Want anything to eat?”

“Apricots, please.”

Lance has been thanking the powers that be since day one that Pidge’s cravings weren’t super weird. Aside from the experimental food Hunk makes, she’s only really wanted fruit. He says, “I’ll get them for you,” and stands up, watching as she waddles  down the hall to the bathroom.

He’s in the kitchen for less than a minute when he hears Pidge’s panicked “Lance!” He drops the apricot and the knife he was using to cut it with and rushes to the bathroom as fast as he can.

When he gets there, Pidge is sat on the toilet, baggy pajama pants around her ankles, and the sound of rushing liquid is much more intense that is probably healthy. “What’s wrong?” Lance asks, kneeling beside her.

She looks up at him, face flushed, and says, “I think my water broke.”

\---

If Lance were in any sane state of mind, he would have felt bad  for the poor ER staff. He arrives  with Pidge only a few moments before the rest of their friends and family storm the building, and he thinks one of the nurses is about to cry, though from stress or being awestruck, he can’t tell. “MY WIFE IS IN LABOR!” he nearly screams, wrenching Pidge’s arm around as if to demonstrate who, exactly, was his wife.

Thanks in some  part to their newfound fame, Pidge is quickly escorted to a large, private room and given a hospital robe to change into. He sees a nurse on a cell phone and knows it won’t be long before a news crew shows up.

Though it’s probably against hospital policy for twenty people to be in the room with a woman in labor, the room is filled to the brink. The first time Pidge has a contraction, it wracks her body and makes her cry out. Lance winces at the thought of it. If it can make Pidge scream, it’s no small thing.

“Why is she screaming?” Coran cries out, looking nauseous and panicked. Allura also looks uneasy, but Lance doesn’t want to take his attention off Pidge too long and grips her hand, letting her squeeze his as hard as she needs.

“It’s the contractions,” her mother explains in his stead. “The baby’s trying to get out, and the body is trying to help, but it has to squeeze it.”

“Will there be blood?” Hunk asks.

Ever the asshole, Ceci says, “Oh,  _ tons. _ ”

Hunk promptly passes out.

The more professional nurse sighs and drags him out of the room with a surprising strength.

\---

The next sixteen hours are excruciating for Lance. He won’t delude himself into thinking Pidge needs his protection. Hell, she’s saved his life more times than he can count! He knows first hand how much of an absolute badass she is.

That’s why it’s so painful to watch, helpless, as painful contractions tear through her. And he  _ does _ watch, he doesn’t leave her side the entire time. He doesn’t think he’ll ever have full control of his left hand ever again, because her  grip is a force to be reckoned with, but he doesn’t care. All that matters is that his wife is in terrible pain and he refuses to let her be alone during it.

Finally,  _ finally,  _ when the sun is starting to rise again, the doctor kicks everyone but Lance out of the room. Then it’s a blur until he says, “Push!” and Pidge strains and screams again. It takes a few more repetitions of the order before a nurse says, “I can see the head!” and Lance wants to cry a little.

With a final push, Pidge’s screams fade into the screams of an infant.

“It’s a boy,” the doctor says, and Lance feels dizzy, because he has a  _ son _ .

The doctor and the nurses wash the baby off and take its--his--vitals and Pidge slumps against his shoulder, panting, hair sticking to her face with sweat, eyes red-rings, and smiles up at him. “This is all your fault,” she informs him, voice hoarse.

“We have a son,” he replies, because what else is there to say?

\---

Pidge and baby Emmett are allowed home after a day of recuperation. He only leaves the hospital to grab clothes that will fit her now so she doesn’t have to go home in sopping wet pants and a shirt ten sizes too big. He calls the daycare as he rifles through the dresser and they agree to give him two weeks off for paternity leave. 

He has to kick everyone out of their house so Pidge and Emmet can actually  _ rest. _ He loves all of them, he really does, and so does Pidge, but they quickly found twenty people and the resulting noise can overwhelm an infant alarmingly fast. As a result, the small family spends the first week of Lance’s leave curled up all together on his and Pidge’s bed.

Lance never knew he could love someone this much. He watches Pidge smile down at their son, coo at him, giggle at his noises, and he realizes he’s never known how intense love could be.

\---

A few weeks after he returns to work, Pidge sends him a picture. He sneaks away from the kids and opens it, and he’s floored, because it’s a picture of Emmett’s wide, toothy grin. He almost cries.

“Mister Lance?” It’s one of the kids, tugging on his pants. “Why are you sad?”

He laughs and crouches so he’s eye to eye with little pigtail-braids Sarah. “I’m not sad, sweetheart,” he says. “My wife just sent me a picture of our baby and I was so happy I almost cried.”

Sarah nods as if this makes perfect sense and drags him over to the building blocks to help her build a tower.

\---

About a month later, Pidge finally decides it’s safe for their families to all be around Emmett at once. She restricts it to strictly  _ blood _ family, though Matt brings Keith along anyway. 

(Hunk will complain about it for the next year.)

(Allura will hold it over their heads until Emmett graduates.)

Lance’s mom and Pidge’s mom cook a big meal together in the kitchen they barely use and they all sit around the table that’s honestly too small for all of them to eat. Emmett’s in his high chair near where Lance and Pidge are sitting, making noises and letting Pidge feed him every few minutes, and his eyes constantly dart around to take in all the new people in his safe space. 

His face scrunches in distaste when, as he’s passed from person to person, he finds himself in Keith’s arms. Keith scowls right back. Lance laughs so hard he has to lay down.

All in all, a successful first family dinner, if Lance says so himself.

\---

For the next big milestone, Lance is home. Pidge has taken the opportunity to take a long soak in the  bath while Lance does the suggested tummy time with Emmett on the living room carpet. He loves doing tummy time with Emmett, because it’s the easiest, calmest part of his development (for Lance, at least). He just has to put Emmett on his stomach to he has to exercise his developing muscles. When Emmett starts fussing, Lance will move to the side and call his name to distract the infant; if he’s looking for his dad, he can’t focus on throwing a fit.

They fall into the comfortable lull of cooing and gurgling, and Lance is starting to doze off when he  _ sees it. _

“Pidge!” he calls, checking his voice so it’s low enough to not startle Emmett.

He hears her muffled curse and she runs out of the bathroom in one of their fluffy sea-green towels, hair pulled up in a messy bun and eyes wild. “What’s wrong?” she asks, eyes scanning for any signs of blood or other catastrophe.

“Emmett rolled over!”

She gasps and rockets to her knees. “He did?” she asks, looking at Emmett with adoring eyes.

“Yeah!” Lance affirms. “C’mon, buddy, do it again!”

It takes more encouragements from both of them before Emmett finally complies, rolling himself onto his side again. “Good job!” Lance cheers, pulling him up from the ground and cradling him to his chest.

Pidge laughs. “Let me hold him, too!” she says. “Jeez, I take  _ one _ bath and you roll over,” she tells Emmett. “Proud of you, little man.”

\---

Emmett starts crawling on time as well, but both Lance and Pidge are so tired they barely notice. When they  _ do, _ they more than make up for their lack of attentiveness by showering him  with praises.

The one thing that  _ doesn’t _ escape them is his first word.

While Pidge was pregnant, they asked their moms what their first words were. Unsurprisingly to either of them, Pidge’s first word was some version of Matt’s name. According to her mother, it sounded more like “at” than “Matt,” but she was also talking earlier than most babies, so she did pretty good. Lance’s was “bath,” or, as his mother said, “baf,” signifying his love of water at the tender age of one year. 

It’s a typical morning in their house. Both Pidge and Lance are a little groggy, nursing black coffees at the dining room table while Emmett eats cereal off his food tray. He suddenly, in the dramatic way only a one-year-old can pull off, waves his hands at one of the helium balloons leftover from his birthday party and says, “Boon!”

They both immediately snap their gazes to him. “Em?” Pidge says softly, standing and moving to his side. “What did you say?”

“Boon!” Emmett repeats happily, clapping excitedly. “Boon, boon, boon!”

“That’s right!” Lance cheers. He’s standing now too, so happy he almost explodes. “That’s a balloon, Emmett!”

Clearly happy about all the attention, Emmett grins and says “Boon!” once more.

\---

“Uncle Hunk has  _ arrived! _ ” Hunk announces as he moves through the front door, a large grin firmly in place.

Emmett, who’s playing with his plush elephant on the floor, shrieks. “Un Hun!” he says, hobbling to his feet with the couch’s assistance. His vocabulary is still pretty limited but he can say, “Mama, Dada, Un Hun, Un Shee, An Lure, Un Kee, Cran, and Un At,” though the rest of their family’s names are still a little too complicated for him. Lance constantly thanks God that his friends have easily shortened names.

“Hey, bro!” Lance greets, launching to his feet and pulling Hunk in for a hug. “Why didn’t you tell us you were on Earth?”

“Well,” Hunk says, scooping Emmett up and bouncing him in his arms, “I needed to get a Coran-approved suit for Allura and Shiro’s wedding, so I thought I’d drop by. Where’s Pidge?” he adds, scanning the room.

Lance pulls Hunk (and, by default, Emmett) to the couch and makes him sit. “Ah, Em wasn’t feeling too good last night, so Pidge stayed up with him and she’s exhausted. I told her to take a nap about an hour ago.”

Hunk laughs. “Still the same old, sleep-deprived Pidge we all know and love, huh?”

Emmett has decides he’s had enough of Hunk holding him and squirms around, opening his arms and crying “Dada!” Lance laughs and lifts him from Hunk’s arms, letting him sit on his lap and chew on his shirt.

Hunk smiles. “Are you two thinking about having more kids?”

Lance chuckles. “She’s actually the one that insisted on three bedrooms, so I’m guessing she wants more than one. If we do end up having more kids, it probably won’t be until Emmett’s a little older, though. Having two babies around the house would be a nightmare for one person.” Emmett perks up at the sound of his name and blows a raspberry.

\---

Lance doesn’t mean to listen to Pidge and Matt’s conversation, but he’s play-chasing Emmett down the hallway when he hears, “I’m thinking of proposing to Keith.”

Pidge laughs. “If you do that before the wedding, Allura may actually kill you. I swear to God, if she wasn’t a princess I would call her Bridezilla to her face.”

“She can’t be that bad,” says Matt, who has never felt the full wrath of Allura’s irritation. Lance predicts the scoff in Pidge’s voice.

“Dear brother of mine, she once threatened to tie Lance to one of the rocket boosters when he kept messing up the training room exercises. You don’t wanna piss her off.”

He sees Matt’s shoulders slump. “So you’re saying it’s a bad idea?”

“I’m saying it would be  _ suicide _ if you proposed before or during the wedding. Anytime after that is free game.”

He leaves shortly after, and Pidge tilts her head over the back of the couch. “Spying, are we?” she teases.

He laughs, scooping Emmett up and carrying him to the couch. “Em’s the once who wanted to race. Do you want me to deny our son?”

“Mama,” Emmett says, reaching for her.

Pidge takes him and lets him lean his head on her shoulder. “Well,” she says slowly, looking at him in a way that never fails to set him on fire, “you’re not the only one who listens to conversations?”

_ Hunk. _ “You heard that?”

“Every word. It’s hard not to wake up when Hunk comes around.”

“So… how do you feel about more kids?”

“Like I said,” she says, teasingly, “anytime after the wedding is free game.”

**Author's Note:**

> Fun fact about the author: My first words were "Oh shit." Thanks, Dad.
> 
> So, yeah, this was basically fluff. I can't promise my next updates will be as quick as they have been, since I'll be starting college soon. On that note, if anyone reading this goes to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, hit me up! It's always nice to have someone to fangirl with!
> 
> If you see any spelling or grammar errors, please let me know. I hope you enjoyed, and I hope you continue following the series!


End file.
